There's a lot New Mexicans don't and can't know about the state's medical marijuana program.

For years, the state’s Department of Health has kept the names and locations of marijuana producers confidential. But a lot of that information could soon be coming out of the shadows.

Advertisement

Joel White is a patient who uses medical cannabis. He said the current rules can be confusing to read and understand.

“It is kind of muddled and it's not really understood by the patients,” White said.

He believes proposed changes to the medical cannabis program, including releasing the names of the state’s licensed producers, is a good thing for the program.

“I think it's important for the community as a whole and the state as a whole to know that this is not the boggy man,” White said. “These people are doing a legitimate business and they are providing a service to medically-fragile people.”

White said he can’t support releasing the names and details of every producer across the state, including people who are approved to grow on their own.

“This is medicine that people are buying to treat a condition a disease,” White said. “That's the way I look at it, as a prescription. You don't disclose that, you don't put that in the paper.”

New Mexico’s Attorney General Hector Balderas said in a letter to the Department of Health on Monday that it needed to clarify which categories are public and which will remain confidential.

The disclosure of once-confidential information is just one of the changes to the program rules.